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We’re happy to announce that Location Star has been selected for the Nokia/Microsoft 2013 Summer AppCampus group! For the next four weeks we’ll be in Helsinki, Finland working on Game Day Go, our first ever public app to feature Location Star’s services.

Introducing Game Day Go

Game Day Go will be available later this summer on the Windows Store. The app will keep you up to date with your favorite sporting events and on “game day” put you into the conversation to share the event with others as it unfolds. We’ll be starting by connecting your Twitter account to discussions around each event then moving to other interactions such as internal messaging, pictures, and video. We’ll be hooking in services such as Facebook and Foursquare to further share in the game.

Why Game Day Go?

We believe the design and features of the Windows Phone really shines in immersing users with event-specific content. We want to be the place on mobile to get all the info you need whether you’re physically at the game or just following it. A clean interface where content is front and center, less clutter more action.

Sign up here to keep up to date with the progress of Game Day Go as we move towards the release date. Also, anyone who’s a Windows Phone user contact us now, we’d love to get your feedback once the initial app is released.

I was looking through the recent Business Insider report on the future of mobile and found it to be a good breakdown of many things that have been said before including that, overall, mobile is growing…fast. The trajectory path for both mobile use and mobile ad revenue is projected to triple in the next 4-5 years.

The report has other insights. It shows just how low the CPM for mobile still is compared to desktop.

I don’t see this getting any better for a while either. For one, mobile impressions are much harder to quantify. Then ask pretty much anyone and they’ll tell you that the current mobile advertising experience (banners and page takovers) are annoying at best.

On June 28th, foursquare announced their new Connected Apps platform. This new platform gives mobile apps two channels to increase engagement and exposure with foursquare users and their foursquare friends.

The promotional media encourages, but most importantly influences consumer behavior, strengthening the marketing abilities of the retailer. In addition to actually contacting the consumers via location-based messaging, the retailer can collect valuable data.

Upon receiving the message, consumers can choose to accept or decline the promotional media. Retailers can use the acceptance/decline rate information, and overlay it with the physical locations of the consumers. For example, it may be determined that consumers 300ft away are more likely to reject a coupon than consumers 50ft away.

The ability of the consumer to refuse promotional media also counteracts arguments that iSign enables an intrusive form of advertising. Because consumers have a choice, iSign can only provide a win-win situation for both parties.

iSign is not only free of charge, but also informs consumers of sales and offers discounts in a convenient way. For retailers, immediate data becomes available to them, such as the number of people who accept or decline the request. This type of advertising with measurement is invaluable for retailers because they can accurately gauge how well their ads are performing.

This system further personalizes location-based messaging to include time, which distinguishes it from basic “geofencing.” This allows brands to send more relevant and effective messages because users will actually want to receive these alerts at that time of day and at that place in time.

But in an age of check-ins and push notifications, why not embrace LBS with open arms? Systems like location-based alarms provides users with notifications when and where they want, eliminating the hassle of manually looking up information or the need to be reminded.

The new foursquare version 5.0 arrived on the iPhone in the early morning of June 7, 2012 EST and later in the day on Android. I was anxiously awaiting the release after buzz and leaks were made earlier about a new version being released in 2012. After installing version 5.0 on my iPhone, I was incredibly happy to discover that the UX changes made by the foursquare team led by @dens, @arainert, and @mari18 have made the app much more playful, sticky to use, and visually engaging.

Since the release this past Thursday, I have already started engaging with more brands and music artists through their lists and tips than I have since becoming a foursquare user a few years ago. I get to discover and engage with these brands and bands much easier now because I am virally exposed to them through my friends foursquare activity that is now broadcast to me in the new foursquare 5.0 activity stream.

While all of these updates are great for consumers, the updates are even greater for brands who can increase reach and engagement with foursquare users worldwide and this is how:Continue reading →

Marketing requires the anticipation of consumer’s needs and wants. Successful marketing requires delivering these needs and wants at the right place and at the right time. With the advent of location-based services (LBS), brands now have access to valuable information by connecting with consumer’s through their mobile devices.

With the knowledge of time and place, brands can send powerful, more effective messages to consumers. For example, if an individual is studying at a college library, brands like Starbucks can choose to send messages, knowing that most college students run on coffee. The student will most likely respond positively to this message and is now more likely to make the trek to Starbucks in the near future. However, if Chanel sent a message to this student, informing her of new discounts or products, the message would be ignored and ultimately, ineffective. Location is everything.Continue reading →

Location Based Marketing is becoming the one of the newest and most effective channels of advertisement for brands and local businesses.

Brands can use location based marketing to create a local presence for the brand and send tailored messages that reach the consumer in a place to influence them towards making a purchase of the brand’s product. By utilizing tools like Foursquare, Google Places and Instagram, a brand can promote a strong online and offline presence further connecting their brand with their target audience.

Local businesses can use these same tools to increase awareness of both their store location and the products that they sell.

With Foursquare lists, a brand can “broadcast a message about one’s brand indirectly” and raise brand awareness. Brand lists give identity and connectivity to the brand’s target audience. After building lists, iMediaConnect suggests to “create tips” which are hints about what is interesting and valuable at a specific location. When someone checks in to the venue with the tip, tips from brands delivers valuable information about the venue and it also increases brand connectivity with the user viewing the tip.Continue reading →

News Apps recently announced they are using geofencing technology to automatically update the latest content on the user’s mobile device. A form of location-based downloading, virtual fences are drawn around certain regions, like home or work. When these boundaries are crossed, actions such as downloading content from a news app will be triggered.

Applications such as Instapaper and Paperboy have launched this feature to provide users with the latest news without having to manually download content, because who has the time really?

Geofencing has propelled background downloading into a new age of technology. It is no longer limited to places of connectivity or bound by Apple’s once-a-day limit. Geofencing can even be applicable to location-based reminders, where once a certain boundary is crossed, say at a supermarket, the user can be alerted to run a certain errand.

GET OUR GUIDE TO WHY BRANDS SHOULD USE THE FOURSQUARE PLATFORM AND HOW TO DO IT RIGHT

click below to download:

WHY FOURSQUARE?

TIPS and LISTS = MINI BILLBOARDS FOR BRANDS

The number of Foursquare check-ins has increased to a rate of over 3 million
daily. This white paper is designed to show you how to leverage this information to increase your customer reach and engagement in just a few steps on Foursquare.

It can help:

Increase overall brand awareness

Connect your brand with a defined user group

Discover insights into how followers of your brand behave

Introduce and promote new products

Drive users to your brand’s website, Facebook, and Twitter accounts

Increase your brand’s presence throughout the social media ecosystem to a larger audience

FOLLOW & CONTACT US

The Location Star platform makes executing location based marketing programs more efficient and effective for brands and agencies. Our goal is to help increase your consumer reach with location-specific targeting.